


Breather

by Nirmalneaners



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Confusion, Inner Dialogue, Kinda, Realization, annoyed vegeta, as close as vegeta can get to a heart to heart, heart to heart, mentions of planet vegeta, mutual understanding, sad Goku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 09:14:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nirmalneaners/pseuds/Nirmalneaners
Summary: "Sorry Vegeta," He couldn't help but notice the bitterness in his reply. His usual grating happiness absent from his voice. "Just needed to get away n' think for a while is all."pfft. "You? Thinking? Don't overestimate yourself, Kakarot."





	Breather

Kakarot wasn't hard to track down. Infuriating, yes, but his Ki could be felt from miles away so he couldn't hide. He slowly lowered himself down, his boots gently crushing the grass as he stood behind the man of his current annoyance. He didn't say anything, nor did the other as he sat swinging his feet off the edge of a cliff.  
  
He waited for a greeting, staring at an orange-clad back as the other did nothing. When he realized it wasn't going to come, he bristled with anger. _The sheer rudeness of that oaf._  
  
" _Kakarot_." he eventually snapped, crossing his arms in annoyance. "What are you just sat there for? Both our women have been causing me grief because of you, they've been prattling onto me about how you just _vanished_ at the party, I couldn't even eat in peace."  
  
"Sorry Vegeta," He couldn't help but notice the bitterness in his reply. His usual grating happiness absent from his voice. "Just needed to get away n' think for a while is all."  
  
_pfft._ "You? _Thinking?_ Don't overestimate yourself, Kakarot."  
  
When he didn't get a retort, or even a defensive joke back he scrunched his eyebrows. His finger started ticking against his arm as he watched the other's shoulders slowly rise and fall with a sigh. It sounded oddly sad, something the Saiyan Price had only seen a handful of time from his nemesis. It threw him off in a way he didn't like.  
  
"Have you nothing to say?" he said harshly, taking a few steps until he came to stand next to him. He looked out across the landscape, barren with sand and small ravines. "Usually it is a battle just for you to _shut up_."  
  
"Was it easier on Planet Vegeta?"  
  
The question caught him off guard and his head snapped down to look at the other Saiyan.  
  
"What did you just say?" he asked, his voice surprised. Kakarot was glancing up at him, his face pulled down into a small frown. He looked like a man who had just asked something forbidden and was about to spill something secret.  
  
"I just mean," Vegeta watched him swallow nervously as he looked away. His hand came up to scratch the back of his neck. "I love it here. This is my home and its all i've known, but sometimes it's hard. I never really noticed it till you guys showed up. I kinda knew that I was different, I didn't know _how_ but people kept pointin' stuff out. And all my life people keep tryin' to get me to do this or be that, the people I was adopted by expect me to be a hero of justice or somethin', my race wants me to destroy and seak vegence I don't even understand. At the end of it, its always my fault no matter what I do to everyone else. But its just, to me its not, yano? I was just doin' what felt right, what I couldn't help but doin'. It feels wrong doin' anything else, but eveythin' I wanna do _is wrong_."

He did know, not that he would admit it. It was one of the things he struggled with the most on this godforsaken planet. Humans and Saiyans may look the same and have a few similarities, but there were far more differences that collided. And for a race as war driven as them, it was hard to form into a setting such as this. They were not as driven by familial bonds or chivalries. He had always preferred bonding with sparring over any of the pathetic vacations and dates Bulma always tried to force him on.  
  
"Chichi says I'm an 'obsessive fleeting brawler', and I dunno what the first word means, but she says it mad so I'm guessin' its not a _good thing_." he suddenly adds, and Vegeta considered him with slight interest. "She wants me stayin' home and farming, Goten, and Gohan want me to be some kinda hero thats fightin' but always there, you want me killin' all our ememies. _I_ just wanna train and fight. _I get an itch goin' that I need to get out_. I know everyone thinks I don't get it, and maybe I don't, but I can't say it in a way anyone gets it either."  
  
"Humans don't understand because Saiyans do not use their voices to communicate that sort of nonsense." he slowly lowered himself down, being careful to leave an ample enough room between them as he sat. "What did you think your tail was for? Decoration?"  
  
"I thought it was for the monkey thing?"  
  
"No _you fool_ , it was far more valuable than that." He said irritably, insulted at the others lack of understanding. "A Saiyans tail was a Saiyans true power, it allowed the Oozaru. But it also had other purposes, such as communication. On Vegeta, we used our tails as humans use those pestering voices of theirs. It allowed better ease on the battlefield with non-verbal communication, although we kept it tightly to our armor most of the time for protection. We hung them lose on our own planet, and this is how we expressed ourselves. It was just our natural way, without it we are no better than mutes. Have you not felt the difference since losing it?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess. I miss it." He shrugged, fiddling with his hands. "Kinda feels like I'm talkin' a different way to everyone else and they ain't hearing it a lot. You do, though. When I first met you and you still had your tail I had a urgin' to it like I was wantin' to do something but couldn't. It was somethin' I never felt before, like someone was hearin' some of the words I was trying to say and I was understandin' someone else fully for the first time."  
  
" _You speak too bold._ " He sneered at the words uncomfortably, "Even if you have no knowledge, subconsciously you were trying to communicate back to me but lacked your tail. It is only in battle that we can communicate now."  
  
It went silent for a while, both just sat in each others company mulling their own feelings over. He often forgot how oblivious Kakarot was to their customs, it _was_ so easy to forget when their only interactions were sparring or fighting. He was aware of both worlds he lived in, both sides of living in two societies and understanding enough of both to be somewhat comfortable. Kakarot was mostly oblivious equally, he realized and found himself wondering how he had not lost his mind in the isolation from the only two races he was apart of. He was too Saiyan for one and too human for the other.  
  
He denied it to himself, but he was jealous of how deep his Saiyan roots ran. In some ways, they went deeper than his own. Since the day they met Vegeta relied heavily on kakarots growth to push himself, and while Kakarot relied somewhat on him he would still train the same if he were taken out of the equation. He was always striving, a one-track mind excited by great lengths to attain new strenghs. And yet despite this, he did not fight to kill as was their instict, nor was it for revenge or pride as he did. It was for something so un-saiyan of simply finding enjoyment at finding his limits. He certainly never showed pride in Being a Saiyan in the proper way. How could he when he had no concept of what that meant? He knew he resented the man for it with his own pride so strong, but he couldn't fathom how one could be so absolutely Saiyan and yet so unbelievably naive and soft-hearted.

The humans reacted the same, he knew from expereince. They were both too powerful and strange to them. Too distant and violent. But Kakarot was so utterly clueless and as much as he hated it, it baffled him at times as he had grown used to this planet. When he first arrived all he saw was human in the other Saiyan, but as he slowly grasped some of their ways of life he realised he had settled in better in just a few years than Kakarott had for a lifetime.

 

_"Isn't it funny Vegeta?" Bulma said, a pensive look pinching her face. "The Saiyan who lived on Earth his whole life is more alien than the Saiyan who came from the sky."_

" _Don't talk rubbish." he snarled, "That man is too soft to be a true Saiyan. It's a disgrace, an insult to our race. He has no honor or pride."_

_"Well he's too wrapped up in his fists and weird to be human. So where does that leave him? He's got to be one of them."_

  
  
"You would have suited Vegeta in certain ways." He found himself admitting, feeling a softness creep into his voice when mentioning his planet. He had caught Kakarots attention again, he could feel his eyes as he watched out over the land. "Fighting was done like breathing, there was no greater honor. The Oozaru was celebrated with festivals, warriors got to battle and die with dignity, we didn't live as long back then but they spent their lives doing what they were born to do."  
  
_Like you have done, even without the knowledge of your birthright._ He coughed awkwardly at that, shaking out of his remembrance. He got back to his feet and patted his legs down in an effort to compose himself. "Not that it matters now, of course. Even if the planet had lived, you're too weak hearted to have survived as long as you have. You belong on this pitiful planet."  
  
"Do you miss it?"  
  
"Enough talking you dishonorable _low class_! I can only stand you so much in one year." He growled, already walking away from the emotional prat. "I've seen you now, that should shut those Women up. I'm leaving, do what you wish. I don't care."

He felt his Ki rise as he prepared to fly. And just as he pushed to take off, he paused ever so slightly at a warm voice.  
  
"Thanks, Vegeta."


End file.
